1. Field of the Technology
The present disclosure relates generally to wireless access points (APs) in wireless local area networks (WLANs), and more particularly to adaptive beamforming configuration methods and apparatus for wireless APs which serve as tripwires in WLANs.
2. Description of the Related Art
A mobile communication device may be designed to operate on two different types of heterogeneous wireless networks, such as a wireless local area network (WLAN) (e.g. IEEE 802.11 based wireless network) and a wireless wide area network (WWAN) (e.g. a cellular telecommunications network). With these types of mobile communication devices, it is convenient to have advance notice of when the mobile device will be handed-off from the WLAN to the WWAN, so that voice communication sessions of the mobile device may be seamlessly maintained during the handoff. For example, if the mobile device and/or network may be made aware in advance that the mobile device is about to leave the WLAN, a connection may be established between the mobile device and the WWAN before the connection with the WLAN is lost. For this reason, a wireless access point (AP) may be deployed specifically to cover regions of ingress and/or egress of the WLAN and serve as a “tripwire” to provide such advance handoff notice. If such AP tripwires had suitable coverage regions that could be easily configured, the reliability and timeliness of handoffs may be enhanced.
Accordingly, what are needed are methods and apparatus to improve handoffs for mobile devices as described.